So my kid has his birthday party at our house. Laser tag and pool party. Good times. As the party is winding down a few of the dads and myself are talking a swath of different topics when guns come up. Pretty easy topic at my house being that a Vickers water cooled machine gun is in the dinning room and a M2 50 is mounted in my office.
One of the dads is a federally of some flavor. I think it's Customs, but not sure. He works helicopter and boat crews doing who knows what. They have cool shit to play with, and I've gotten to fuck around with some of it a few times when I'm not in jail. Anyway we start talking guns and shooting and of course shooting under water since most his shit is done in open waters. He had never shot a gun underwater so I said no better time than the present. So I went and got a Glock 19.
Now this isn't a shooting underwater review so I'm gonna skip most of all that, unless anyone has questions about it.
So, I load the 19 and toss it into the deep end of the pool. My youngest swims down and brings it back up for me. I shoot a couple rounds then I hand it to the popo, and tell him what to expect, what happens with different type of cartridges, etc., general bs. He fires off a few rounds, and so does a couple other dads. Then my son takes a couple shoots, and so do all the other kids that are left.
So as we are chewing the fat, he asks about if I've shot a .40 underwater cause that is what he carries. I said no, and of course what happens? I go get a G22 and some ammo. Interesting the .40 bullets travel farther underwater than the 9mm and 45. The .45 travels the shortest distance under water The .40 also has less "zapping" under water compared to the 9mm and 45.
So at this point we have an HK Tactical .45 out. Would only shoot 4-5 rounds then up and quit firing. It was hitting the primer but not hard enough to fire it. We started to theorize that the water was slowing the exposed hammer just enough for light hits. So I went and grabbed a striker fired .45. Taurus tactical. It fired a couple of the dented .45s from the HK but wasnt doing much better. So our theory was shot. (Exposed hammer vs. striker fired). Then we figured let's just put the muzzle in the water and see if they shoot. Bang everytime. We were starting to think water had gotten into the cartridge, but it hadn't. So who knows. Maybe the long fat slide of a 45 just is too much mass in water that it slows where shit just doesn't want to work underwater. I was disappointed in the HK because a have a HK USP SD 9mm that works all the time underwater with or without a suppressor. So the .45 going to shit was a real bummer. Who cares, let's get to the AR!
So of course it's time to see what an AR15 will do. So I go grab a bushmaster. It's a carbon model 15 I think. First round bang. Wow. Not much, other than a big swirl of water but bullet travel is maybe 6-8 feet in front of the barrel underwater. Pull the gun up, cycle it, submerge it again, pull the trigger, boom. Gun blows up. Whole upper is destroyed as well as magazine. Shit is all over the bottom of the pool. Bolt is split in half, and carrier looks like a blooming flower.
Out of our afternoon of water blasting some things we learned
.40 travels the farthest under water a good 7-8' farther than the second place 9mm and almost twice the distance of a .45. The .223 with highest velocity, both rounds went same distance and went nowhere. Only 6-8' from the barrel. We speculated with velocity and bullet shape the .223 would travel the farthest by far. Didn't happen.
I'll post pics of the AR in a little bit.